Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden wants more federal police manpower to be able to process more traffic violations. This is what MP and Chairman of the Internal Affairs Committee in Parliament, Ortwin Deporter, from the far-right party Vlaams Belang, said, adding: “While shootings are being fired every day in Brussels, Minister Verlinden is busy with traffic fines.” “In terms of priorities, it could be important. The country's current government is not interested in security, but is just trying to fill the bottomless financial hole. According to local media, due to the introduction of zero tolerance for speeding on highways, it has also increased The number of speeding violations has increased dramatically. For example, in 2022 the police recorded a record number of no less than 6.2 million speeding violations, an average of 17 thousand violations per day. However, their processing by the regional processing centers of the Federal Police is currently limited to five million violations per year, according to Minister Verlinden. It wants to expand the processing centers with additional staff, so that the processing capacity will rise to nearly nine million violations. According to Verlinden, the capacity expansion should also make it possible to introduce new controls for the local division in the Flanders region", the Belgian-speaking half. In Flemish, because speed cameras along regional roads and mobile speed camera equipment can flash continuously.
“The country’s current government is not concerned with security.”
“While shootings happen almost every day in Brussels, Verlinden is busy racking up more traffic fines,” Deportier says. “In terms of priorities, this can be important. Along with removing the margin of tolerance, this is part of an outright bullying policy towards motorists.
Vlaams Belang believes Verlinden's priorities are wrong. “The only goal is to collect more federal revenue,” DePortier concludes. “The country’s current government is not interested in security, but is just trying to fill the bottomless financial hole. We don’t get safe streets with more traffic fines, we get more police.”